VJing is fast emerging to be one of the most innovative creative movement of the 21st century's first decade. Consequently market forces will became interested about the art form, and this post intends to discuss this emerging relationship a bit.
Back in the days, I have witnessed real business ideas been stolen by better positioned and more resourceful people, or taken them and then presenting them as their own. And that happens a lot. Often the success (in which ever way you define it) does come with a good self-promotion and networking. I think this is one of the things that is holding culture back. Looking from my point of view, you can be the greatest visual storyteller in the world, but professionally, you're no competition for somebody who above else "wants to direct". So better give some attention on that entrepreneurial will to push through the wall.
Well...nice. But what if I argue that coming up with your own ideas is a more fun way to go through life, than huge amounts of money earned?
It gets back to the idea that there's no limit to what you can accomplish as long as you don't mind who gets the credit. It's legal to steal ideas in this society, but it is not legal to steal money. This means that where art and finance mix, there isn't a level playing field, and the person who controls the money can steal the ideas. It's basically rule by force - not physical force, but economic brutishness, with Adam Smith's Invisible Hand of the marketplace acting as a fist. As a result, a lot of nice people in their ivory towers of industry are somewhat sad figures because they're isolated from the things that they love, from the very things that would inspire them. Sad even more because they are forced to be up in their towers by the Invisible Hand's imposed pressure.
VJs have a huge advantage in this area, as they are by necessity always in the "cultural mix" and are interacting with audiences, getting direct feedback. Creative communities allocate resources by merit rather than force. So it's not the kid with the rich parents who can get to mix the visuals on "Crossover of Senses", it's the kid who can mix visuals best.
This is very similar to open-source softwares taking over within IT world. This kinda relationship with the markets is relevant to VJing because historically, every time the medium takes creative leaps forward, the scene has enjoyed a collaborative atmosphere. Whereas when the VJ scene has been tighter and more competitive, the creativity stalls and even loses ground. This is evidence if you study the development of VJing, or actually development of other movements. The competition forces the innovators to secure their loose ends to stay competitive, though keeping the innovation robust would be the exact antidote for the competition.
This is well signified with music videos, which ultimately are recorded VJ performances without the improvations aspect. The videos were very innovative at late 70s and early 80s. Music channels' rule over the preferred form forced the music video directors to stick in the format of portraying the artists. Consequently videos became mere marketing tools, and lost their music visualisation aspect. I personally realised this in the "Broken Promised Land" project, where our client was very concerned on how the public would react on the content. Our directing had a lot VJ ideas in it, and consequently created the main problems of the project.
So being in this situation of seeing my area of business rocketing to the mainstream, I wish I can keep my integrity. I really want to keep my faiths, but we will see how strong my will is. It isn't an easy road to combine innovation and revenue. My personal definition of success is accomplishing what you've set out to do with your priorities still intact. To quote Citizen Kane, making a lot of money is easy to do if that's all you want to accomplish in life.
The thoughts on this post were influenced by:
Spinrad. Paul (2005) The VJ Book, Feral House: Los Angeles
Faulkner, Michael (2006) VJ: Audio-Visual Art + VJ Culture, Laurence King: London
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